Thank you! Yes, my son is EXTREMELY motivated. He submitted applications to 20 private schools in mid-September (19 regular decision), plus several SUNY schools as safeties. If we had started looking at colleges with him sooner, though, I don’t think as many applications would be necessary. He has asked for a peer recommendation for Dartmouth and submitted a graded paper for Princeton (not sure about Brown, so thanks for mentioning it). He knew he would be busy his Senior year and wanted to get as much done as possible over the summer.
Yes, and I read about several SCEA applicants to Yale with similar and better Stats than DS who were flat out rejected. I think he’s amazing and incredibly talented and would be an asset for any campus, but who doesn’t feel that way about their kid? What matters is how the college sees him! He’s applied EA to Binghamton for Harpur and should easily get in. I’m hoping this acceptance arrives before any word from Yale.
Thank you! I honestly have no idea if DS would even qualify for merit aid. I only know of one school he is looking at (has not applied to yet) where merit aid might be an option. We’ve focused so much on acceptance into schools that will fully meet need that it hasn’t left as much time to explore merit options. As a parent, I don’t want all his hard work to result in not going to a school he really wants to be at. We will likely be looking at the same cost whether it’s a small private or a public, so it makes sense for us to apply ED II if he has chosen a college before the deadline.
I think I saw in one of your threads that you are applying for fin aid, correct? Since all of the apps are completed, have you filed FAFSA and sent to all the schools? FAFSA will include your financial info, and your son’s step dad (I think you said you were remarried?) and your son’s. Sending FAFSA to 20+ schools will take some time because you can only do 10 at once…you have to wait until those schools process it before you remove that school and send to each of the school numbers 11-20+.
For many of the privates you will have to also file the CSS Profile. This will include your ex’s financial info as well (and a step mom if there is one).
Due dates for all of the financial forms will start happening quickly, and then there will likely be follow up questions from some portion of the schools. Make sure you and your son are checking his portals often to make sure things are not falling thru the cracks.
May your son enjoy his senior year, as he has earned it by completed ALL of his applications! Congratulations! Enjoy your remaining college visits.
Then ED II is not an option for you at any school that determines financial aid based on non-custodial parent income. (U of Chicago may be one school that is an exception).
You will need to compare financial aid awards.
I think what many people don’t understand about need-based financial aid, is that in the end there may be no easily affordable options, and you will be making a decision based on which is the least unaffordable. That is, that you will have to borrow more money than you would like to make it work, or make other lifestyle changes. And you will decide that you are willing to make that sacrifice for the sake of your kid — but you arent going to be able to make that determination when you have one financial aid package in hand but can’t see others.
My suggestion as that your son apply to more safeties and rolling admission colleges. If there are any problems with cooperation from the father or if income of either parent fluctuates, you may be a lot happier down the line with a merit award tied to your kid’s GPA vs. a need-based award that can go up and down every year depending on how well the other parent is doing financially.
So…what would you do…contact one of these schools and ask that his application be switched from regular decision to ED 2?
My S19’s experience w/ ED couldn’t have been better. At his college you do get quite a boost w/ approx 50% of the class coming from ED 1 or 2 w/ an approx 30% acceptance boost. He was a decently competitive candidate but not a superstar at a T 30 LAC.
32 ACT, 4.3 WGPA, varsity athlete who got hurt and not recruited, geographic diversity
He actually fought us for 2 yrs on seeing this school as being too small and too rural, even though he was pretty much set on a small LAC. Then the coach showed a little interest so he went to see it finally fall of senior year. Fell in love.
Even though he got hurt a couple weeks later and the recruiting never materialized, it didn’t matter. He was already hooked.
So far it’s been the best decision! He takes part in a club sport that won’t further injure him, has a small campus job, writes for the school paper, plenty of friends (though not dating yet), and attends LGBTQ meetings. He’s doing exceptionally well academically as well as socially and emotionally. There’s a quiet confidence about him that I hadn’t anticipated so quickly. He just seems more comfortable with himself now.
I know ED isn’t for everyone but for my son it was great. He was able to enjoy his senior year much more as there was so much less angst. With his injury suddenly ending his career, I don’t want to even begin imagining how he would’ve coped w/ that as well as apps and decisions.
Thank you for suggesting this. Yes. This is actually all done as well. We submitted all income docs via IDOCS the first weekend in October. FAFSA’s have been sent to all schools and NCP form Submitted with Dad’s tax info as well. He is not remarried so that was a bit easier.
Yes, but again only after reaching out to the financial aid office and making sure our NPC calculation will match what they plan to award in aid.
Thank you! This is encouraging. Our DS has similar stats — 32 ACT and 4,0 Unweighted GPA. He was voted most musical by his class, and performs in both band and chorus, so not an athlete, but definitely a leader in his extracurriculars.
We can afford to pay for his college and likely will not need to borrow very much if at all. We do not currently have any debt other than a modest amount left on our mortgage. He’s grown socially, but definitely didn’t start out at high school that way. He’s grown more every year and even did the school musical which required some amount of dancing (something he swore he would never do). It’s just been nice to see him step out of his comfort zone, which has always been Music, and become more involved. He even joined a “Link Crew” at school that was just started this year. I asked him why he was adding another activity and he said adjusting to high school is hard, and It’s important that the freshman know there is someone to help them make the transition. High school can be tough for some kids, but he’s found his niche, and I want him to have the same experience throughout his college years.
Thank you! We are honestly still sorting everything out. I do know that Dad is on board with helping his son through college. It’s his only child and he’s as proud of him as we are. DH and I are very careful with our money. We have not overextended ourselves and have been not spending a considerable amount every month for the past couple years so that we would be in the habit when it came time to pay for college. We do not have a large amount of debt, and do not expect to need to take too much out to help our son. That said, he has applied to several affordable safeties. I’m not talking about pushing him to apply Early Decision 2. What I’m saying really is if he 100% knows where he wants to go—enough so that he is willing to withdraw all other applications as though they never existed—we would be willing to consider it. Right now, he’s not decided yet and there’s no guarantee he will be in time to bother with ED 2.
Just keep in mind that the more complex your own financial situation is, the less reliable the NPC estimates. So unless your son ends up with his heart set on the ED 2 school… to the extent that all parental figures are willing to pitch in and contribute something more than originally anticipated… it may just make more sense all around to go with RD.
The situation I worry about is one where a family walks away from an ED admission with a disappointing level of aid, only to find out in April that all options are worse than anticipated.
So my point is that you need to be very certain of your own willingness to bite the bullet and pay for that school before allowing your son to apply.
The reason schools encourage ED is that it is beneficial to the school. It allows them to pick and choose students who meet a variety of different admission goals, knowing that those kids are going to come.
The admission goals shift as the admission season progresses, so it is quite possible that particular traits of a given applicant are more or less advantageous to admissions during different phases. You can’t know what those admissions priorities are or will be, but you can at least be cautious about buying into the notion that the ED process gives your student a huge boost in admissions chances. The numbers that show an ED advantage reflect group averages, not necessarily applicable on an individual level. And schools have to admit enough RD students to cover their yield…that is, if there is a 50% yield on RD, the school has to admit twice as many RD students as it needs to fill the class.
First of all, it isn’t “Us who applied” it is the kid that applied. If you are using the “we applied to…” language you really need to disengage.
For my D it was clear to her from her 1st visit to the school. For her, we went on a visit to another school on Columbus Day, after that visit it was even more clear that her favorite after the visits was the only school she was really interested in attending. She applied EA but treated it as ED.
DD applied ED because she loved the school. She wanted to be around really smart students like herself that shared a passion for academics. Look at the stats, half of all classes are admitted early. If not admitted EA to Yale the chances of an RD admit are diminished as they are now competing in a much larger pool. You’re not going to be able to determine what exactly the admissions office is looking for so the only thing you can look at is the rates of admission which are simply higher for ED.
My S19 did not apply ED because he didn’t have a favorite, but mainly because we needed to be able to compare financial aid offers. His dad and I are divorced and dad is not contributing to college costs but was willing to submit financial information (which affected aid quite a bit). Since I had already been down the financial aid road with D17, I knew that the awards would vary a lot, so we needed to keep options open until the end. I do think S19 would have received a definite admissions boost at the school where he now attends if he had gone ED, but thankfully it worked out in the end and he had some RD acceptances. FYI, Brown’s FA award wasn’t nearly as good as some other offers received.
I 100% agree that it isn’t “us” that is applying. The “We” was meant to be in reference to who is financially assisting with his education.
I had a long discussion with him last night about what he wants to do and he is not interested at all in applying early. He said the college visits are helping him make a very important decision and that he doesn’t want to rush. He said he knows that he will likely need the “Accepted Student Day” to make his final choice, and feels that if he doesn’t get accepted to a college because he didn’t apply Early, than it wasn’t meant to be. He also said he has a few schools that are in the running, but not one that stands out yet. I’m very proud of how mature and introspective he is being and fully support his stance on this. It is certainly possible that, with 9 planned visits left, he will find the “one” school, but it’s also entirely possible he will have simply weeded more out. Either way, DH and I are planning on his decision not being made until after the regular decision pool.
Thank you for this. It is a good point that we really don’t know exactly which individuals with what stats and traits are applying in each round. I couldn’t help but notice that some schools that aren’t as selective have a higher admit rate in the RD pool than they do from their ED pool; I haven’t quite figured that out yet? In conversations with his Father it has become clear his Dad also isn’t favoring ED. I suspect my son feels that he put a lot of hard work in his essays and applications and doesn’t want to have any regrets or feelings of “what if” (rightfully so). I suppose he may have those feelings either way with schools he is not accepted to, but I think he will feel much less regret by having all of the information before making a decision. That alone may be a sign he isn’t ready to even think about ED, which apparently he is not.
Thank you for sharing this. One of my biggest concerns is that the aid packages may vary, but I’m also concerned that DS will be disappointed if he doesn’t get into a school he felt he had a good chance of getting accepted to. It’s surprising to hear that Brown, an Ivy School, wasn’t as good as others.
D1 fell “in love” with Columbia because it met all of her check boxes, but we didn’t analyze enough of her chance (other students with better hooks applying to the school). She was deferred and later rejected. She ended up at Cornell by getting off the WL. It turned out to be the perfect school for her. She absolutely loved her four years later. We were later told the reason she was WL at Cornell was because they didn’t know if she would attend if admitted (her GC was informed of that).
Fast forward 5 years, D2 was trying decide where to ED…I told her it was her one free option and to use it well. She had the stats and ECs to get into Yale, Harvard, Williams, Stanford. We were living overseas, and I had her visit Yale 3 times to see if it would stick. D2 decide to ED at Cornell because she knew her chance at RD would not be as great and more importantly she felt she would be just as happy at Cornell as other “higher ranking schools.” She didn’t want to take the chance of applying to other schools EA/SCEA/ED and miss out on getting into Cornell. She got in and also had very good 4 years. She is now at a grad school of her choice.
There are schools that care about ED, and it is use it or lose it option. I think it is a mistake to ED at a super reach school (hoping for a bump) and trying to get into more of a high reach school during RD.